I finally got my Sapphire Breeze back in the water. Well, Saturday morning when I got to my boat at the boat ramp dock, I climb aboard and first thing I wanted to check is if there was water in the bilges. Sure enough, there were several inches of water in the bilge where the holding tank is. Now there are three possibilities that came to mind on the cause of the leak.

1. My thru-hull that I sealed off.
2. The repair that I had done to the crack just forward of the keel trunk in the bottom of the hull.
3. I really doubted, but the possibility of the stress on the keel bolt thread fittings in the hull causing something to crack when I bolted the keel back up.

I dried out the bilge as much as possible and then tried to determine where the water was coming from. I found that my cap on the thru hull was fine, no leaking there. It turned out the thru-hull was leaking where it meets the hull. Apparently when I cranked down the cap, I accidentally turned the entire fitting just enough to break the original seal. Water was slowly seeping through the old sealant. I talked to Larry, my marina owner and found out he put my boat in the water on Friday afternoon. Good thing it wasn't earlier in the week because I would have found a lot more water in my boat! There were three other boats in the launch ramp where my boat currently was that needed to get out before he could haul me back onto his trailer. He would be able to haul me out later in the evening which would be fine with the leak being so slow.

Dave showed up and we planned to lower my mast and rewire it and install new lights. He brought his A-frame that he built from pipe conduit and some mountain climbing gear (line, blocks, and clips) which he uses on his C-250. It worked very well with my boat too, lowering it was the easiest. Here it is down:


I didn't get any real good photos of the A-frame contraption but here is one:


We pulled the new mast wiring kit I bought from Catalina Direct through the mast. Connected up the new anchor light at the mast head and the combination steaming and deck light midway up the mast. I also bought the topping lift kit from Catalina Direct and attached the steel cable to the bolt on the mast head. My windex was broken during haul out because of some trees over the ramp area. I was able to bend some of it back, but half of the indicator is broken off. We had to make a quick stop at West Marine for some electrical connectors for the lights and I checked out a new windex and found they go for $60. Ouch, I've already spent so much on my boat lately, I thought they were cheaper. All I actually need is the arrow, so I'm going to do some research to see if I can find what I need. I left it the way it is for now and will try to fix/replace it later.

Here are some close ups of the mast head:




Larry hauled me onto his trailer so I could reseal my thru-hull fitting and we would finish the rest of the mast wiring and raising on the trailer. I was first concerned if I would be able to remove the thru-hull fitting because it is located in such a narrow space in the bilge. Luckily, the backing nut unthreaded easily and I was able to clean the surfaces and apply plenty of 3M 5200 sealant. I was then able to tighten it down nicely.

Dave was finishing up my steaming/deck light wiring as I fixed the thru-hull. We then screwed the assembly to the mast and then we were ready to raise it back up. We did run into a major issue of the line over lapping in the winch because it was hard to get a direct feed onto the winch when we raised the mast back up. The mast was raised about 8' over the cockpit, so there was a ton of tension on the line and we could not get it to budge in or out. Fortunately Dave brought a steel cable with a ratchet winch that we were able to ratchet down the A-frame to the head stay fitting enough to give slack in the line. Now I wrapped the sheet starting at the top, going down which lead the line better to the winch. I cranked away on the winch and up went the mast. We tuned the rigging and were finished! I owe such a huge thanks to Dave; I don't know how I would have done this without him.

I spent the night on the boat and was half awake when around 7:30am suddenly I heard Larry start the engine to his truck that is attached to the trailer my boat was resting in. He mentioned he was going to put me in the water early in the morning, so I jumped out of bed and got out to re-launch my boat. He put me in the water and I got ready to move over to my slip. My thru-hull did not have a single drip thus far. I moved over to my new slip which is even tighter than before on the bulkhead. I managed to slide in between the two boats, parallel docking perfectly. I only have a few feet fore and aft of my boat. I sure hope they don't hit me and I don't hit them anytime in the future. I installed my new main sail outhaul kit that I also bought from Catalina Direct. I need to call them and let them know that the shackle they include does not fit the block that it needs to go through. Fortunately I had some spares that I substituted instead. Now I have a functional topping lift and an adjustable outhaul!

Next I needed to scrub my decks, they were a mess.




I scrubbed off a lot of bird crap, dirt and mildew. Then I started cleaning and organizing the cabin to get ready to sail. It was a beautiful day, sunny, blue skies, and winds were reported to be in the high teens and gusts in the low twenties. Dave motored by my marina on his way out with his family in the morning. I told them I may see them out there on the water. By the time I finished everything though it was around 2pm.

I prepared everything for my maiden sail of the season which I also will be single handling. Just as I left my marina I noticed I forgot to take off my fenders and board! Oops, I can't be caught sailing with those things hanging off the side. I turned around and quickly tied back up to my fender set up. I have a 10' long 2x4 tied to two fenders, so it isn't like I can easily throw it in the cabin. It was good practice to dock again anyways. I then departed, this time to get under sail for sure. Shortly after leaving my marina around 2pm Dave and his family were coming right down the creek. They completed their sail. I headed out to the Rhode River, raised my main sail and sailed downwind at about 4 knots under the main alone. Once I got to the opening to the West River, the wind completely died. I was watching all the other sailboats ahead of me heeling way over and really moving along. I was sitting there, my GPS reading 0 knots over ground, and my windex was spinning in every direction! I opened up my headsail almost all the way to try to catch some wind. The wind finally began to come from one direction and I began to move. The wind was moderate but then suddenly, after just a couple minutes, I received the blast of wind that all the other sailboats were in! I was way over powered and so I rounded up to furl my headsail. I then set my course, trimmed my sails and was cruising along very nicely at about 5 knots. The wind was coming from the north, north east, right down the channel. As I was coming more into the West River, the winds were beginning to pick up, waves were increasing, and I was keeping an eye on what the other boats were encountering and their sail trim. I then decided to put a reef in the main sail while I could more easily at the time. I set my tiller and climbed on deck and set the reef. I jumped back into the cockpit and it was great timing because shortly after the winds were picking up even more. I had both sails reefed and was sailing close hauled 5 knots over ground and only heeling about 15 degrees. I didn't take many photos at all, but you can see how nice of a day it looks:


I was getting comfortable with my boat again since it had been so long since I sailed her. As I was cruising along with a huge grin on my face, slicing through the waves, even got a little wet with a larger wave I splashed through, I wanted to open up the genoa a bit more. I powered her up a bit and picked up another half a knot, now staying closer to 5.5 knots and actually not even heeling much more, maybe 15-20 degrees at most. I was having a blast and getting a lot of practice tacking single handling upwind. I was keeping an eye on the time because I had plans that evening I needed to make sure I got back in time. I wanted to keep on sailing out, but I needed to turn back. I tacked back to the Rhode River and then sailed very comfortably on a perfect beam reach picking up speed and sailing at 6 knots easily. I sailed up the Rhode River and furled the genoa and lowered the main at the opening of my creek. I motored a couple minutes to my marina and docked without any issues into my tight slip. I talked with Dave after my sail and he reported winds in the high teens and gusts in the low twenties during his sail, so that should be about what I encountered.

Here was my course plotted from my GPS:


Once at the slip, I checked out my bilges and found more water. Most likely it was water that was in the lowest part of the bilge that I cannot access which made its way under the dinette seats when heeled over during the sail. I sponged it all out and will keep an eye out next time. I put everything away, sprayed down my boat to rinse off the salt water spray, then needed to get on the road home. I had an awesome sail and single handling again for the first time since last summer just proves to myself my skills and comfort level. My boat sails better than ever now with all these projects completed and I don't need to worry about my keel with all the new hardware. The keel is also rock solid, no banging at all. The topping lift not only makes it easier for me to raise, lower, and reef the main sail, but it is also safer now because before I sometimes asked someone to hold the boom when I lower the sail. I cannot wait to get back out on the water!